Exponential technology trends can combine and intersect with unbelievable results. The kind of results that can change the world on a impressive scale, disrupt entire industries and create Abundance for everyone.

Start by taking 10 trends identified at Think Exponential and placing them in a grid, 5 on a side. By combining two technologies and their corresponding trends, we can find applications in industry and society. This is just a subset, there are almost 50 exponential technologies generating 2500+ combinations.

Thinking Exponentially, in the next decade each technology will improve 100 to 100,000 fold. You only need your imagination to see how technologies, when combined, can create thinking-outside-the-box solutions.

Medical Everywhere

Mobile + Artificial Intelligence: As smart phones progress they can serving more and more as remote medical diagnostic tools. Then can read heart rate, analyze moles, image wounds, sequence DNA on site, and even do blood work. Connected to a centralized artificial intelligence like IBM’s Watson, and you have world-class medical expertise everywhere for everyone.

This is the idea behind the Qualcomm Tricorder $10M XPrize, to create a handheld device that can match a team of doctors.

Cure Cancer

Genetics + Computing + Robotics: Cancer is a genetic disease. By reading the genetics of millions of cancer lines, we will be able to find common genetic mutations that are unique to cancer but common to all cancers. There well be so much data that the problem is only addressable with cloud computing and robotics.

Already there are dozens of projects around the world doing exactly that – scanning 1000’s of cancer genomes looking for common changes. Discoveries are being announced weekly and is the reasoning behind Solving Cancer.

Topple Dictatorships

Internet + Mobile: Mobile phones allow for anyone to take a single event, record in video and broadcast it globally. This is a catalyst to emotional motivate a population to rise up. It happened in Egypt, Libya and now in Syria. Crowd sourcing organized enough people into critical mass to topple entire governments.

In some ways Twitter has changed the world in a way the US military never could.

Scalable Web Apps

Internet + Computing: Cloud computing allows for anyone to get as many computers as then need cheaply and quickly. Amazon is the leader with a million+ servers. Heroku combine with Ruby on Rails makes it simple to build a scalable web app. A single person can create a new service and launch it online from a coffee shop. Anyone can control 1000’s of computers to do their bidding.

Launching a scalable website used to cost a million, now it’s under $10,000.

Global Warming

Synthetic Bio + Crowd Sourcing: Carbon dioxide levels rising is problematic. With Synthetic Biology it is possible to create artificial life forms. Life that exists only to do a very specific function, such as remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store energy as sugars. Using software such as Genome Compiler, almost anybody can become a synthetic life engineer.

Using Internet powered Crowd Sourced funding such as KickStarter, anyone could crowd finance their own synthetic life project.

Military Conflict

Robotics + Artificial Intelligence: Soon military drones will be flown entirely by on A.I. Scanning territory from miles away, flying in robotic fleets, using facial recognition software. Take it a step further, unmanned fighter jets, autonomous tanks, and even robot soldiers could be built.

Its far easier to build and clone robots than it is to train humans. It will change the face of military conflict.

Poverty

3D Printing + Nanotech: About a billion, 1 in 7, live without the basic necessities of life. They lack power, water, housing. For example, using nanopores it will be possible to create filters that can create clean water effectively freely requiring minimal energy. The same technology could be used to create high-efficiency solar cells for power.

The 3D Printing has just begun, with the ability to create anything anywhere will allow almost anyone to create just about anything.

Energy

Genetics + Synthetic Life: Craig Venter has collected for 60 million genes from bacteria all over the world. It is the world’s largest genetic library. Using genetic printing, it is possible to extract from nature the genes we need to create a unique life form. One that spits out high-grade light sweet crude oil by taking using salt water, solar energy and carbon in the atmosphere.

Education

Internet + Mobile: Education, or more specifically, lack of education is what keeps society down. With a cell phone and the Internet, now anyone can take a course on anything – often for free. In 2011 180,000 people took Stanford University’s online artificial intelligence class. Getting into Stanford is almost impossible, thanks to cell phones and the Internet, now anybody can attend.

Coursera, Khan Academy and Udacity offer online learning to the planet and is the theme behind Solving Education.

Summary

This is just the tip of the proverbial exponential iceberg. What is key is that by combining technology trends, amazing results are possible. Even if the technology is not readily available today, you can predict when it will be.